Sweet Potato Pie

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I have a confession to make. I had never made or tasted a sweet potato pie until this evening. We are pumpkin people and the similarity between the two types of pie assured that the one made with sweet potatoes would be given short shrift. That changed when I paged through the October special collectors issue of Saveur magazine. It featured 101 of the 150 classic recipes that had been chosen to celebrate publication of the magazine's 150th issue. I love this magazine, and, as I read through the recipes they had chosen, I made a mental commitment to make every recipe in the special issue. My original plan was to start the effort in January, but when I saw the vibrant color of this sweet potato pie I knew I had to move up my time table and include it as part of our holiday dinner. The pie was created by Mrs.Bonner who owned a cafe in Crawfordville, Georgia. As I understand it, this was the only dessert she served and somehow in their travels, Jane and Michael Stern, authors of Roadfood.com, stumbled on the cafe and were attracted to the bright color of the pie. They sampled it and liked it so much that they begged for the recipe, and, proving yet again, that good things come to those who wait, they finally were given a copy. They attribute the color of the pie to the use of boiled, rather than baked, sweet potatoes. The fact that no spices are added to the custard probably helps as well. Those of you who love sweet desserts will be in heaven. It is delicious. This is very easy to prepare and it makes a perfect holiday dessert. I hope you will give it a try. Here's how this version of sweet potato pie is made.

Sweet Potato Pie...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Jane and Michael Stern and Saveur magazine

Ingredients:
1-3/4 cups flour
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed and chilled, plus 8 tablespoons melted and cooled
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cups boiled and mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Directions:
1) Place flour, 8 tablespoons chilled butter, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a food processor, and pulse until pea-size crumbles form. Add 1/4 cup ice-cold water; pulse until dough forms. Form dough into a ball and transfer to floured work surface; form into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
2) Heat oven to 375 degrees F. In a bowl, whisk together 8 tablespoons melted butter and salt, sweet potatoes, sugar, milk, vanilla, and eggs until smooth; set filling aside.
3) Unwrap dough and transfer to a floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll until 1/8-inch thick. Transfer to a 9-inch pie pan and trim excess dough from edges. Crimp edges with a fork or your fingers. Pour filling over crust and smooth top with a rubber spatula. Bake until crust is lightly browned and filling is set, about 1 hour. Let cool completely before serving. Y
Yield: 8 servings.

One Year Ago Today: Cider Brined Pork Loin

Two Years Ago Today: Nankhatai for Diwali

Three Years Ago Today: Portuguese-Style Turkey Soup with Linguica, Potatoes and Kale

Scott Peacock, Southern Corn Bread and Corn Bread-Pecan Dressing

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Just last week we explored the life of Edna Lewis, a woman many believe to be responsible for the revival and preservation of Southern cooking. Her story is a compelling piece of Americana but lurking in the background of that tale lies another that begs to be told. In the early 1990's, Miss Lewis met Scott Peacock, a troubled young chef who suffered from fierce bouts of clinical depression. Drawn by their shared love of the South and Southern cooking, this old woman and this young, gay white man forged an unusual friendship. Together they harnessed memories, techniques and recipes and combined them in the book, The Gift of Southern Cooking. They became known as the Odd Couple of Southern Cooking. There was nothing kinky here. She wished to pass on what she knew and he was an avid listener who was willing to soak up all she had to pass along. Over time they became family to each other. In the early days of their friendship she helped him through bouts of depression and kept him focused. As she aged and became fragile, he became her caretaker. She lived with him for years and died at the age of 89 in his home. Scott first met Edna when he was in his early 20's working as a chef for the governor of Georgia. They met at a food festival where he helped her make pies, and, in the course of conversation, shared with her his love of Southern cooking. She invited him to visit her in Brooklyn and there convinced him to shelve his plans for foreign study, urging him to stay in-country and document the food he already knew and loved. As corny as it sounds, he writes from the heart, and when they worked together he added balance to her memories and opinions and was able to combine her cooking instincts with his own. He was the heart, she was the soul of their collaboration. In 2007, Scott was named Best Chef in the Southeast by the James Beard Foundation. These days he is working on a memoir that will include his time with Edna and, in a separate project, documenting the food memories of other octogenarians in the South. If you have about 20 minutes you might want to link to this touching video. I've chosen a simple recipe for corn bread and corn bread-pecan dressing to highlight his cooking style. It made this damn Yankee smile. I think you'll like it, too





Corn Bread-Pecan Dressing...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Scott Peacock via Chef Recipes Made Easy

Ingredients:
Southern corn bread (see below)
3 cups pecan halves (11 ounces)
8 thick slices of slab bacon
1 stick plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (5 ounces), 4 tablespoons melted
3 cups coarsely chopped onions
3 cups coarsely chopped celery
3 large shallots, minced
1-1/2 tablespoons rubbed sage
1 tablespoon dried thyme
6 large eggs, beaten
1-3/4 cups chicken stock or canned low-sodium broth
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions:
1) Break corn bread into large pieces, scatter on a baking sheet and let dry overnight. 2) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. On a rimmed baking sheet, toast pecans for about 10 minutes, or until nicely browned and fragrant. Transfer to a plate to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees F.
3) In a large skillet, cook bacon in 6 tablespoons of butter until very crisp, about 10 minutes; reserve the bacon for another use (I recommend BLT's). Add onions, celery, shallots, sage and thyme to skillet and cook over low heat until vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.
4) Tear corn bread into 1 1/2-inch pieces and place in a large bowl. Top with cooked vegetable mixture and pecans and toss well. Stir in melted butter, eggs and 1 cup of the chicken stock. Season with 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper and mix well.
5) Butter a large shallow baking dish and add corn bread dressing. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and baste dressing with 6 tablespoons of remaining stock. Bake for 10 minutes longer, then baste with remaining 6 tablespoons of stock. Bake for 20 minutes longer, or until golden brown on top and heated through. Yield: 12 servings.




Southern Corn Bread...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Scott Peacock via Chef Recipes Made Easy

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cups white cornmeal, preferably stone ground
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups buttermilk
4 large eggs, beaten

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Put butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet and melt the butter in oven.
2) Meanwhile, mix cornmeal with cream of tartar, salt and baking soda in a large bowl. Add buttermilk and eggs and stir to blend.
3) Remove skillet from oven and swirl to coat with butter. Pour melted butter into e batter and stir just until incorporated. Scrape batter into hot skillet and bake for about 35 minutes, or until crusty around edges and springy to touch. Invert corn bread onto a rack and let cool completely. Yield: 1 10-inch cake.

50 Women Game Changers in Food - #24 Paula Deen - Peanut Butter Gooey Butter Cake

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Paula Deen has been described by those who know her as a force of nature. That may be an exaggeration, but it is fun to think of her as an aproned Mother Nature hurling thunderbolts from the tip of her stainless whisk and wooden spoon. She's been the butt of endless butter and cream jokes, but she takes them in her stride and seems to have been given that most precious of gifts, the ability to laugh at oneself. She has many detractors, but even they cannot deny that she's brought huge numbers of women back to the kitchen and codified the cooking of a region and an era in the process. I must tell you that while I'm not a fan, I am an admirer. Paula began professional cooking following a divorce that left her with $200 and responsibility for two teenage sons. She was considered to be a good Southern cook, so, lacking other marketable skills and suffering from agoraphobia that kept her housebound, she started a small catering business called The Bag Lady. She made and bagged meals that her boys delivered them to customers. The Bag Lady was very successful and she soon outgrew the space in her home. She moved on to the kitchen of a hotel in Savannah and stayed there for five years before opening her own successful restaurant, The Lady and Sons. In 1997, she self-published her first cookbook, The Lady and Sons Savannah Country Cooking. The book was noticed by a literary agent and it went on to become an enormously successful best seller. She has since written three more books. She first appeared on the Food Network in 1999 and has remained their ever since. Her credits also include a role in the movie, Elizabethtown. Paula Deen has establish an empire that centers around cooking and hospitality. She has been very successful and helped rekindle an interest in Southern home cooking. She has, for the most part, left healthier cooking to others, and I suspect she'd tell her many critics that she never planned to be a missionary. I think she's earned her place on the Gourmet Live list of 50 Women Game-Changers in food. I did some quick research before selecting the recipe I wanted to feature today. Paula's gooey butter cakes have consistently been the most popular of her recipes. They are actually a version of Southern chess cakes, but they are much easier to prepare. I chose to make the version that uses peanut butter because it National Peanut Butter Lover's Month and, besides, someone else was making the pumpkin version. If you love sweet things, I think you'll love these cake squares. If I make them again, I'll add a cup of salted peanuts to the cream cheese mixture. Here's the recipe.

Peanut Butter Gooey Butter Cake...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite courtesy of Paula Deen

Ingredients:
1 (18 1/4-ounce) package chocolate cake mix
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup creamy peanut butter
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 (16-ounce) box powdered sugar

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 13 x 9-inch pan. Set aside
2) Combine cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat mixture into bottom of prepared baking pan.
3) To make filling: Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and peanut butter in a large bowl until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, and butter, and beat until combined. Add powdered sugar and mix well. Spread mixture over cake and bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Do not overbake. Center of cake should remain a bit gooey. Yield: 12 to 16 servings.

The following bloggers are also featuring the recipes of Paula Deen today. I hope you'll visit all of them. They are great cooks who have wonderful blogs.

Val - More Than Burnt Toast, Joanne - Eats Well With Others
Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed, Susan - The Spice Garden
Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey, Heather - girlichef
Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney, Jeanette - Healthy Living
April - Abby Sweets, Katie - Making Michael Pollan Proud
Mary - One Perfect Bite, Kathleen - Bake Away with Me
Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen, Sue - The View from Great Island
Barbara - Movable Feasts, Kathleen - Gonna Want Seconds
Amy - Beloved Green,Jeanette - Healthy Living
Linda - Ciao Chow Linda, Linda A - There and Back Again
Martha - Lines from Linderhof, Nancy - Picadillo
Mireya - My Healthy Eating Habits, Veronica - My Catholic Kitchen
Annie - Most Lovely Things

Next week we will highlight the career and recipes of Paula Wolfert. It will be really interesting to see what everyone comes up with. If you'd like to join us please email me for additional information no later than Monday, November 21st.

Sweet Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing

One Perfect Bite was featured in the Sunday Brunch Segment of Amuse Bouche, the blog associated with the magazine Where Women Cook. It you're interested, the feature can be seen here.





From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I'm fairly even tempered and it takes a lot to move me from cold to hot. That's not to say I don't have a pet peeve or two, and, as it happened, a couple of them surfaced today. One is the accumulation of unfinished cereal sitting in boxes that are only fractionally full. That happens a lot around here because each member of my family has a favorite all their own. That favorite is generally unfinished at the end of a visit, so, to my great shame, you'll occasionally find Cocoa Puffs or Fruit Loops floating in my cereal bowl. Generally, the assortment stales before I can work my way through it and I'm left feeling guilty because I have to throw it away. That happened this morning. Another peeve surfaced this evening while the table was being set for dinner. I think we all have a vision of what we consider to be gracious living. Mine does not include a collection of jars and bottles sitting in the center of the dinner table. In my dream world, salads are tossed in the kitchen and graciously served from a bowl at the table. The Silver Fox doesn't share my vision. So, it happens that an assortment of condiments and dressings got to claim space at my table tonight. Among them was the Vidalia onion dressing I used to make peanut sauce earlier in the week. One of the advantages to making your own condiments and dressing is that you can control the amount you make by sizing the recipe for them up or down. I normally make half the recipe because that's sufficient for our needs. While I make this to use in peanut sauce, it's also wonderful on bitter greens and fresh fruit, so I have plenty of opportunities to use it and it will not go to waste. The dressing is embarrassingly easy to make, but I do have one serious caution. The Vidalia is a sweet onion. While other sweet onions can be used to make this, don't make the mistake of thinking all white onions are sweet. Ask the produce manager if you are not sure. If you make this with anything other than sweet onions it will be dreadful and you'll speak of me using adjectives I'd prefer you not. REMEMBER SWEET ONIONS. Here's the recipe.

Sweet Vidalia Onion Salad Dressing...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite adapted from Group Recipes

Ingredients:
1/2 large vidalia onion
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 tablespoons white vinegar
8 tablespoons granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons ground dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon salt or salt to taste
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper or pepper to taste

Directions:
1) Slice 1/2 inch off both ends of onion. Pierce onion skin in several places with a sharp knife. Place onion in microwave-proof bowl. Add a tablespoon of water and microwave, covered, on HIGH power until soft, about 3 to 4 minutes. Set aside to cool.
2) When cooled, peel and place in food processor. Puree until smooth. Add oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, garlic powder, celery seed, salt and pepper and process until smooth. Chill. Yield: 1-1/2 cups.

You also might enjoy these recipes:
Caesar Salad Dressing - Shih's Cooking
Basic Vinaigrette - A Couple Cooks
Thousand Island Dressing - Cookistry
Buttermilk Ranch Dip - In Flora's Kitchen
Creamy Cilantro Tomatillo Dressing - Gina's Skinny Recipes
Honey Mustard Salad Dressing - Stylish Cuisine
Orange Balsamic Dressing - Vegacious
Feta Cheese Dill Dressing - SpiceOpolis
Homemade Catalina Dressing - For the Love of Food
Lime and Wasabi Dressing - Entertaining Made Easy
Ranch Dressing - The Brunette Foodie
Poppy Seed Dressing - Being Suzy Homemaker
Recipe for Green Goddess Salad Dressing - Kalyn's Kitchen
Pink Grapefruit Salad Dressing - One Perfect Bite
Poppy Seed Salad Dressing - One Perfect Bite
Blue Cheese Dip - One Perfect Bite

Georgia-Style Brunswick Stew

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Except to say it's a traditional Southern dish, little is known about the origins of Brunswick stew. Both Virginia and Georgia claim it to be their own, but proof to support either claim is missing or contradicted. In Virginia, the stew is made with chicken and sundry vegetables. In Georgia, pork and squirrel reign supreme. I couldn't find a squirrel, but I had a sufficient quantity of slow-roasted pork to attempt my first Georgia-style version of the stew. Several months ago, the Daring Cook's challenged their members to give Brunswick stew a try. The recipe to be used for that challenge can be found at the Wolf's Den. I took a pass at the time, because the recipe made a huge quantity of food. I always feel guilty when I don't participate in these challenges, so I never quite put the idea of the stew to rest. A large quantity of left-over pork and the need for something to carry to a covered-dish supper led to the creation of my first ever Brunswick stew. Diana Rattray, whose recipe can be found here, developed an easy version of the stew that I decided to use as the base for my own. This is very basic food. It also happens to be delicious, especially if your sweet tooth encompasses main courses as well as desserts. If fairness, this is no sweeter than barbecued beef or pork but I was a bit surprised when I took my first bite. This was well received by my tasters this evening, so I think you might enjoy it as well. Here's the recipe.

Georgia-Style Brunswick Stew...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, inspired by Diana Rattay

Ingredients:
2 pounds pork, cooked and cut in 3/4-inch dice
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon hot sauce, or to taste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 cup barbecue sauce, your favorite
1-1/2 cups ketchup
3 cups potatoes, cooked and cut in 3/4-inch dice
Optional: 1 cup cooked lima beans or edamame
2 to 3 (15.5-oz.) cans cream-style corn
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a stockpot or Dutch oven. Cover and simmer until hot and bubbly. Thin if desired with water or stock. Taste and adjust seasonings with more salt and hot sauce, as desired. Yield: 8 servings.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Autumn Pork Stew - The Bake-Off Flunkie
Leek, Potato and Pork Roast Stew - Babe in the City
Chipotle Pork Stew with Rice and Lentils - Food Republik
Pork Vindaloo - E L R A
Pork Stew with Chipotle and Plantains - Edible Aria
Spicy Pork Stew - Chewing the Fat
Brunswick Stew - Art and Lemons